The windows are tinted. I can’t see the driver. I peer through the mist.
Something makes the hair go up on the back of my neck.
“Sir?” my driver asks.
“Yeah.” I stare down the road. “Yeah, I’m coming.”
39
WINNIE
“Ugh, Fitz. He’s so obnoxious,” I mutter.
“No!” Kathy swoons. “He’s amazing, Winnie.”
My dinner is threatening to come back up.
Who cares if Fitz and my sister like each other and get together and get married and have the perfect family? It’s not like I haven’t survived that before. If Fitz wants to, then let him. I’m living in the present.
Then why didn’t I want to go home with him?
“That’s a true alpha right there.” Gran is whooping as she relays what happened to Brinley.
“It’s so romantic.” Knox’s girlfriend swoons.
“So romantic,” Kathy squeals. “You should have been there.”
“I wish a man would act that way about me,” Brinley says longingly.
They all troop up after me into the bedroom, where Fidget is on my bed slurping up a carton of ice cream.
“Fidget, don’t hide that behind the pillow!” I chase the dog. “Those are freshly washed sheets.”
“I mean, do you think Knox is cheating on me, Winnie?” Brinley asks anxiously.
I unfasten the necklace.
The smart thing to do would be to say,Of course not. He loves you and your unborn child, and you should go home to him. Right now. And tell him how much you want to be with him. And did I stress all this needs to happen right now, and I will help you pack your bags?
“To be honest”—I grab a towel to set the dog-slobber ice cream on—“men aren’t shit. And Knox is absolutely cheating on you. Shit, that’s how you got with him—he was cheating on Kathy with you.”
And that’s how he got with Kathy, by cheating on me. But I don’t say it. It was high school. It was embarrassing.
I’m over it.
Completely over it.
“He’s using you. He doesn’t respect you. He’s using you for sex and free babies, and he’s back in the locker room, bragging to all of his boys how he’s got a dumb little sex doll waiting for him at home while he bounces around town with a damp dick looking for any puck bunny who wants to park his weiner for free.”
“Why don’t we have some wine?” Kathy says. She looks a little shaken as she opens the bottle.
“Aren’t you glad you didn’t have a baby with that joker?” I tell her.
“Oh!” Brinley gives a hiccup of a sob. “He told me he was at dinner with his mom, but…” She holds out her phone with a text message from Kathy. “He’s with other girls.”
“See? Trash.” I give her a hug. “I know several good lawyers here,” I promise her. “I’ll make sure you take him to court for child support. Also, I advise that you move back to your home state so that you can get the max amount of money from him and don’t have to share custody. While I do support men being involved in their children’s lives, Knox is not one of those men.”
“But I want to stay here with you.”
